“Bring Back Our Money”: The Legality of Returning Assets and Wealth Acquired by African Leaders Through Corruption to African States

Abstract

In the wake of corrupt activities by some leaders in Africa and the world at large, their extravagant assets in foreign lands and fattened offshore accounts after their prosecution has become the focus of recent discussions. The success of the modern legal framework has made it possible for corrupt leaders to be arrested and prosecuted. This has resulted in assets of such leaders being seized and accounts being frozen by legitimate court orders. This paper highlights the legal procedures that govern the return of assets and wealth acquired through corrupt means on both the international and domestic fronts. Not doing away with the challenges and hindrances to this honourable act of returning the wealth of mostly developing nations to them, the paper makes use of relevant case studies as it addresses the hurdles to this effect in modern contexts. It however concludes that this phenomenon should not be an issue for only developing countries but should also be of keen interest to developed nations as well. The pursuit of globally sustained development is not a race for some but for all. With all major stakeholders playing their part, the embezzled funds which has deprived the victimized states of substantive development shall be returned.